Leicestershire 133 and 243-6 trail Gloucestershire 293 by 17 runs
Gloucestershire moved closer to consecutive county championship victories by taking six Leicestershire wickets in the second innings on day three at Bristol.
They will resume in the morning still 17 ahead and confident of completing a victory, which will be deserved for the excellent cricket played so far in this match.
Although the sun shone amongst patchy cloud, a viscous blustery wind swept across the county ground and made conditions less than desirable for players and spectators alike. But Jon Lewis ran in against it to claim 3-27 and move the Shire to within sight of victory.
The day began with Steve Snell continuing his excellent innings and it was a shame he couldn't make a century, but it had been his supporting act the previous day that set up the lead, which ended at 260. It was a great effort from the batsman to compile the largest total of the season, and a marvellous recovery from 70-4.
But again the visitors made a positive start to their reply and a 127 opening stand frustrated Glos. But they were able to chip away at the wickets and claimed two with the second new ball late in the day to put them in the driving seat.
Lewis found some extra bounce and, after trapping Paul Nixon LBW, managed to find a bottom edge from Wyane White's first ball as he attempted to leave, and Will Porterfield claimed an excellent low catch at second slip.
I could look it up myself, but can't be bothered at the moment! ...so if someone else can, when was the last time we recorded consecutive victories in the CC??
ReplyDeleteTurns out I could be bothered - if anyone cares, last time we won two championship games in a row was 2004! (beat Surrey by 6 wickets on 2/6/04, then Middlesex by 10 wickets on 9/6/04) - I should point out that both of these were during our spell in Division 1 of the CC too!
ReplyDeleteAre we going back up this season?
ReplyDeleteCan we beat what is probably our best ever sequence of 6 wins in a row? That happened in 1969 starting with a win against Hampshire (match started 21st June) and ending with a win against Yorkshire (match ended 15th July). Amazingly this was sandwiched between an innings and 53 run defeat to Yorkshire (Glos bowled out for 41 in the first innings) and a 208 run defeat to Glamorgan (who eventually pipped us to the Championship). Ah those were the days!!!
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